High levels of HIF-2α highlight an immature neural crest-like neuroblastoma cell cohort located in a perivascular niche

High HIF-2 alpha protein levels in the sympathetic nervous system-derived childhood tumour neuroblastoma as well as immature phenotype correlate to unfavourable outcome. Here we show that a small subset of perivascularly located, strongly HIF-2 alpha-positive tumour cells (MYCN amplified) lacks expression of differentiation markers, but expresses neural crest and early sympathetic progenitor marker genes such as Notch-1, HES-1, c-Kit, dHAND, and vimentin. HIF-2 alpha- and CD68-positive tumour-associated macrophages were frequently found close to the immature and HIF-2 alpha-positive neuroblastoma cells and as VEGF levels are high in the perivascular niche, we hypothesize that neuroblastoma neural crest-like cells and macrophages cooperate to facilitate angiogenesis and thereby contribute to the aggressive neuroblastoma phenotype. Copyright (c) 2008 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.